News service sues Google over content

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Agence France-Presse has filed a lawsuit against search engine giant Google Inc., accusing the company of reproducing and displaying copyrighted story leads, headlines and graphics on its news site without the international news service's permission.

The case could affect the way Web sites that display content published by other news organizations, such as the Drudge Report, which posts verbatim headlines written by other news outlets, can display information on their sites.

According to the complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Google News has illegally posted thousands of the news service's headlines, story leads and photographs since the site was started in 2002.

Google News (news.google.com) is separate from Google's search engine.

Google began removing content published by the Paris-based news agency shortly after the complaint was filed, said company spokesman Steven Langdon.

"We allow publishers to opt out of Google News," said Mr. Langdon, who would not disclose when the company would issue a formal legal response. "Most publishers, however, want to be included in Google News because they believe it is a benefit to them and their readers."

By law, Google has 20 days from the time the complaint was registered to file a response in court.

The news service also filed suit against Google in France three weeks ago, but has no plans to sue the company in any other country, said news service attorney Joshua Kaufman.

In its U.S. suit, the news service is seeking at least $17.5 million in damages and an injunction against Google to immediately stop the display of the news service's stories on Google News.

At stake is the way certain news-collection Web sites and search engines can display news content, said lawyer Scott Spooner, who specializes in trademark and copyright law.